By the time Tony co-founded Lonely Planet Publications in 1973, he already had the travel bug. And ever since, travel and discovery have been at the heart of his life and career.
Melbourne has a new subway line – the Metro Tunnel – running through five new stations and currently having a soft opening, before the schedule launches full tilt on 1 February 2026. The new Parkville Station will probably be the most useful new station, since it’s at the University of Melbourne which badly needed a handy Metro station.
▲ The Town Hall Station
The two new central city stations might look slightly redundant since the Town Hall Station is only a couple of hundred metres from Flinders St Station and the State Library Station is right beside the Melbourne Central Station. In fact you might find it easier to enter the State Library Station from Melbourne Central rather than from its own entrance. The Metro Tunnel line, however, runs in a different direction than the other lines through Flinders St and Melbourne Central.
Unfortunately to use the new line you still need the horrible old Myki Card. Transport Victoria have announced that they are introducing ‘tap and go’ technology to Melbourne. Tomorrow? No, they are testing it in 2026 and at some point in the future you’ll actually be able to use it. But didn’t they start testing it in 2023 at some stations? Well yes they did, but clearly three years of testing wasn’t enough, there’s more testing to be rolled out in 2026
◄ My hated Myki Card
Hasn’t anybody asked them about this before? Well yes, for one person I asked Transport Victoria why we couldn’t use contactless cards in Melbourne when London introduced the technology in 2014. So that’s 10 years ago.
And I did get an answer, ‘we’re working on it and hope to introduce it soon.’ Which in Melbourne seems to be in 10 years time. So for over 10 years I’ve been able to use my Australian ANZ credit card to pay for public transport in London, England. But not in Melbourne, Australia. Absurd isn’t it?
Once upon a time Melbourne was a regular ‘most liveable city in the world’ title holder. How could you be a ‘most liveable city’ and at the same time operate the world’s most-visitor-unfriendly-travel-card? I suggested that in 2013 and 13 years later my opinion hasn’t changed. Never mind, the new Metro Tunnel Line reportedly took lots of lessons from London’s very popular Elizabeth Line. In London I often use the Elizabeth Line even if it means travelling a bit further because it’s so fast and convenient. Perhaps Melbourne can also learn from London how to get rid of the Myki Card.
▲ The Elizabeth Line at Bond St.in London
Since it opened in 2022 the Elizabeth Line quickly became the busiest railway line in the UK although technically it’s not part of the London Underground network. It runs out to Heathrow Airport – but so does the Piccadilly Line – and even further to Reading. It’s popular and has won architectural awards as well as being so busy. Check my August 2024 posting about riding the London Tube.
Glaring resolutely down at me from a tree just across the fence from my backyard was what I took at first to be an owl. In fact it was a tawny frogmouth. The next day it had moved to a different perch and was still keeping a close eye on me, but now accompanied by a s...
The Covid-19 Pandemic continues to rage with some countries – pretty much all of Europe – getting the numbers down while in others – like most of South America – the numbers are still climbing dramatically. Plus there are fears of ‘second waves’ showing up. The econom...
Silo art has become an attraction all over rural Australia in the last few years. Check this website for an excellent overview of the story all over the continent. In April last year I spent two days following the silo art trail in the Wimmera region in the north-west...
Souvenirs are an important part of travel and over the years I’ve bought some truly terrible souvenirs. Most of them, I’m glad to say, precisely because they were truly terrible. You know the process: ‘Oh my God, that is absolutely awful. I must buy it.’ Most of my re...
Australia still has borders closed between some of the states and there’s much discussion over when they will open or if it’s even legal to keep a border closed. When there’s talk of a ‘Trans-Tasman Bubble’ between Australia and New Zealand – separated by the Tasman S...
Well I’ve posted about where I haven’t been going, about my empty city of Melbourne and where I have been travelling recently – walking and cycling along Melbourne’s Yarra River. ▲ And visiting Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport. It was a rare opportunity to see a de...
Of course international travel has completely shut down and in Australia even domestic travel doesn’t extend very far. We really can’t travel interstate at the moment. So I’ve been walking and cycling along the Yarra River, the river which runs, from source to sea, fo...
◄ Today I should be in Fray Bentos in Uruguay – of course I’m not, I’m locked down at home. To Brits and Australians it’s a familiar name associated with tinned meat pies. They’re made by Campbell’s Soup in Australia while in the UK the name, according to Wikipedia, ‘...
Spending so much time studying the coronavirus statistics it’s almost a relief that Sir Stirling Moss – ‘the greatest driver never to win the World Championship’ – was taken by straightforward old age on 12 April 2020, at 90 years old. ▲ I had a spell following mot...
I’ve just looked at aerial views – since I’m unlikely to be looking out of aircraft windows again for a spell – so let’s look at hotels as well. My most recent hotel – a bit over four weeks ago, was the Novetel Cairo Airport, my second airport Novetel in the past year...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013